Where Normal Need Not Apply
“The voice didn’t grab me.” Uh-oh. Isn’t that feedback one of a writer’s worst nightmares? Voice is one of those things that feels like we either have it or we don’t. And we think we can’t easily change it because our voice is so internal to us. But all is not […]
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Last time, we discussed Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat craft book and how we can use his writing tools to revise our work. His beat sheet points out when story events (beats) should occur in a screenplay, and most of his advice applies to all forms of fiction writing. Whether we dig into […]
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Before I start, thank you to everyone who commented, tweeted, and emailed me with support after my last post about losing my cat. You all have filled me with virtual hugs and put a smile on my face. Thank you. *hugs back* In fact, after writing that post and reading […]
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I didn’t want to write this post. I wanted to be stronger. I wanted to be professional. I wanted to hold this pain inside and not let my vulnerability show. If I can’t handle life’s combination of good and bad events without shattering, how will I survive the huge swings […]
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Last week, we had a great discussion in the comments about whether we call ourselves writers or authors. In general, we agreed that while we don’t judge others by what they call themselves, we each have our reasons for what we call ourselves. Many echoed the idea that we want […]
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*sigh* It’s happened again. An author has insulted other authors and a huge percentage of readers. Why do people do this? Between social media, the interrelationships of the publishing industry, and the permanent nature of the internet, news of negativity travels far and wide. Sure, we can’t spout unicorns and […]
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Recently, the Awesome-Dipped-in-Glitter (TM) Kristen Lamb pointed out that “aspiring is for pansies.” We are not aspiring writers. Aspiring: to have a plan, desire, or hope for something. Writer: a person who writes. If we put those together, that means an aspiring writer is a person who plans, desires, or hopes […]
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Let me start by profusely thanking everyone who bravely participated in Pitch Your Shorts and everyone who helped spread the word about the pitch session. I was out of town all last week for my grandmother’s funeral, and yet the pitch session was a great success because of all of […]
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We’re in the middle of the Pitch Your Shorts pitch session with Entangled Publishing. If you have a 10-60K word story with strong romantic elements, check out that post for details on how to pitch to six(!) editors. During the pitch session, I’ve had to lock down comments to make sure things […]
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It was a dark and stormy blog post. *snicker* We’re continuing to prepare for the January 10-16th Pitch Your Shorts pitch session by tackling the issue of story openings. (Check out Tuesday’s post for everything there is to know about pitching.) While the purpose of a pitch is to get a request, […]
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